Grande Finale

Expedition team with the hospital staff

With only six of us left (Russ, Alice, Graham, Toby, Alberto and Lev) we now had to cover over1500 miles in three and a half days to make Blantyre within 60 days- our cut off point before people had to go back to work- and so the race was on.

Although the roads in Southern Tanzania weren’t too bad there was still some death defying driving being done by the locals- and Graham. That said, we made it to the Malawian border without too much difficulty on Monday morning after a night spent in possibly the worst hotel in Africa. Rammed in between two late night African ‘bars’ down a dripping alleyway the rooms were illuminated with flickering red strip lighting and no windows and the bathroom contained nothing but a broken tap and a bucket in which to make a deposit. Alberto was clearly dumbstruck and the camera immediately came out to capture the moment. Still what can one expect for $1 a night.

The border itself took longer than expected and there was much paperwork to be done to import the ambulances permanently. Despite being advised that he didn’t require a visa, Alberto was informed that he now did and was reluctantly given permission to travel without an entry stamp only as far as the nearest immigration office in Mzuzu. There we duly went only to find a lot of unhelpful officials and a broken printer and so Alberto- now enraged- decided to risk travelling illegally since we all had to fly back to Tanzania in 2 days anyway. The road down through the country was practically empty, since, being the fourth poorest country in the world practically no-one can afford a car and diesel is as expensive as it is in the UK- for us it meant that we could cover 500 miles reasonably quickly as far as Monkey bay, right on the lake where we were to pick up Ruth and Mike for the last stretch. We arrived on the lake late and since everyone was asleep we spent our penultimate night of the trip rough camping in the bush- an apt finish!

We met Ruthie and Mike in the beautiful surroundings of the Norman Carr cottage run by Taffy, right on the shores of Lake Malawi and we were treated to possibly the best showers in the world and a fantastic complimentary fry up which was massively appreciated. Following local advice we even took a dip in the lake (famed for its gut rotting bilharzia) and was well worth it…at least for now…

So with two extra pairs of hands, the 4 hour drive down to Blantyre was a breeze and our last chance to listen to the one CD that had been our only musical companion for the entire trip! (cheers John) We arrived at the BEIT CURE international hospital, located on a beautiful hilltop overlooking the pleasant town at five pm on Wednesday 29th September- exactly sixty days, 25 countries and 10,430 miles after setting off on that rather hungover Sunday morning at the start of summer!

Any reservations that we may have had as to the worthwhile nature of the trip in actually making a contribution to the hospital were immediately blown away when we were greeted by all of the hotel staff and many of the patients who were all incredibly welcoming and friendly and amazed at what we had achieved. John, the hospital consultant put us up in the hotel accommodation annex and treated us to a wonderful meal at Maky’s bar where we got royally drunk.

The ambulances arrival at BEIT CURE

The next morning we had a very early start in order to do the official handover and was surprised when we were greeted by several TV, Radio and Newspaper journalists, all eager to cover our story for the national press. John gave us a guided tour of the hospital- including the AMECA wing which is about halfway to completion- where we were privileged to meet many of the patients and especially the children being treated for a variety of Orthopedic conditions. It was extremely moving to hear of some of the tragic stories and terrible afflictions that are so preventable in the western world but here so prevalent. We were all amazed at just how hard working and incredibly selfless all of the Doctors and staff were at CURE and have our maximum respect for what they are doing.

All that remains is to say a huge thank you to all of our sponsors and to everyone that has given us such huge support throughout what has been an amazing journey. The ambulances have served us very well and we didn’t get a single puncture- so I am certain that they will serve the community of Malawi for very many years to come. The hospital was so very grateful of the new addition to their fleet and I would like to assure everyone that gave money, no matter how much, that these cars will make a big difference and help save many lives. Finally thank you to all of the participants of Expedition Africa Challenge, who without your contribution the trip would never have succeeded.

L Wood
p.s more photos to come

Lev Wood